Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	cold_a	hot_a	moist_a	5,424	5	10.2024	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16489	Relations of the most famous kingdomes and common-wealths thorowout the world discoursing of their situations, religions, languages, manners, customes, strengths, greatnesse, and policies. Translated out of the best Italian impression of Boterus. And since the last edition by R.I. now once againe inlarged according to moderne observation; with addition of new estates and countries. Wherein many of the oversights both of the author and translator, are amended. And unto which, a mappe of the whole world, with a table of the countries, are now newly added.; Relazioni universali. English	Botero, Giovanni, 1540-1617.; Johnson, Robert, fl. 1586-1626.	1630 (1630)	STC 3404; ESTC S106541	447,019	654

of all writers not because their pastures are better or sweeter than those of the South by the censure of Plinie but for the nature and temperature of the Heavens and the Ayre And as the Northerne man by nature is hot and moist the Elements of fecunditie so there is no question but that of all people they are and have beene the most populous For from the Goths the Scythians the Germans and the Scandians not onely vast desarts and goodly Cities have beene founded and inhabited but from their loynes also have Colonies beene derived thorowout all Europe Well therefore might Methodius and P. Diaconus resemble their Armies to swarmes of Bees And most true it is that Iornandes and Olaus terme the North the Store-house of mankinde because from thence the Goths the Gepidae the Hunnes the Cimbrians the Lombards the Alani the Burgundians the Normans the Picts the Heruli the Swevians the Slavi the Swizzers and the Russians have not denied to fetch their pedigrees Which maketh me to muse upon what reasons Hippocrates could build to say That the Northerne Nations were unapt for generation causa frigiditatis whereas the conjectures of heat and moisture argued in their hot and fervent breathings proceeding from the stomacke and more apparant in Winter than in Summer are not so effectually verified in any people as in the inhabitants of the North. The true motives I say of promptnesse to generation and not of sensuall concupiscence as Aristotle also would have us to imagine A vice more proper to the Southerne man performance to the Northerne man Which indifferent limitation was without doubt allotted to either climate by the handy-worke of God that those who were of sufficiencie for generation should not greatly be addicted to pleasures the residue which wanted of that measure of heat and moisture should delight in wantonnesse to raise their appetites without the which they would neither propagate their issue nor by inter-marriages maintaine humane societie And that this inward heat also maketh the people of the North more couragious taller and stronger than the Nations of the South is apparantly discernable not in our parts onely by the operation of nature but also in the people dwelling beyond the Tropike of Capricorne where the more they decline from the Aequator the more they spread in stature and tallnesse For the land of the Pentagones of some termed Giants is situated under the same latitude that Germanie is Which assertions holding true it is no wonder that this strong and couragious people the Scythians have from the beginning cruelly invaded the South erecting therein many goodly Trophies whereas from the South hath scarce ever beene attempted a journey worth speaking of to the indammagement of the North. The Assyrians vanquished the Caldeans the Medes the Assyrians the Greeks the Persians the Parthians the Greekes the Romans the Carthaginians the Goths the Romans the Turks the Arabians the Tartars the Turkes and beyond Danubius the Romans were ever unwilling to attempt Indeed Trajan erected an admirable bridge of stone over that River for it had twentie arches the rumes whereof by report are to be seene at this day But after that the same Trajan perceived that those Nations were neither easily beaten nor being beaten would or could away with subjection he commanded the bridge to be broken Semblably the English have given the French and Spanish many famous overthrowes especially to the French in France it selfe even to the hazard of their State and yet never could either of both the Nations at any time though often attempted set sure footing in England These inrodes of the aforesaid barbarous Nations I would not reiterate but that in them to mine understanding the grievous threats of Ezechiel Ieremie Esay and the rest of the Prophets That from the North should arise warres footmen horsemen and the ruine of kingdomes have beene in and by them accomplished and most properly ought to bee referred to that fore-divided partition which stretcheth from the five and fortieth degree to the fiftieth and five where Biarmia is situated For those which dwell beyond being either none or very few are dried up to use Hippocrates his terme with as vehement cold as the people living under the Tropikes are with heat Not by reason of their inward heat as Aristotle in his Meteors dreamed but by the rigour of the cold piercing their bodies and wasting their humours unto which humours the Northerne people are generally subject A manifest signe whereof is their immoderate drinking which in the Saxons and the inhabitants of the Baltike Sea could never yet be moderated by time nor statutes And that these humours cause the body to spread let the Monsters of the Sea resolve our doubts who grow to that immensive vastnesse above all other living creatures propter humiditatis copian● But as I take it this overmuch moisture in the Northerne people turneth them often into many grievous inconveniences For if you observe any of those Nations to travell towards the South or to make warres in hot Countries you shall finde them to faint and perish through immoderate sweating as Plutarch in the life of Marius observed in the Rhewmatike bodies of the Cimbrians And as experience manifesteth in the Horse who being by nature hot and moist liveth barely in Aethiopia and liketh well in Scythia whereas on the contrary the Asse being cold and drie is lustie and of good service in Afrike in Europe poore and base in Scythia not to be found And what now we have spoken of the strength and courage of men is observed also to be true of horses The Turkish and Barbary horses are like their Masters rather well limbd and well spirited than for labour or long journeyes The Spanish Iennet like the men of his nation quickly proves good for a souldier both best when best caparisond The Hungarian is a fierce assailant and his horse must bee lookt too for feare of running away with the Coach The high and low Dutch are bigge boned but foggie people and the Germane horse is not to travell above thirtie miles a day that nation admires a poore English Hackney The Tartar is a stubbed squat fellow hard bred and such are their horses And so for our English Of the people of the South THe people of the South as concerning the constitutions of their bodies are said to be cold drie thicke-skin'd thinne and short hair'd weake browne small timbred blacke eyed and shrill voiced the Northerne men contrarie and the middle people indifferently participating of both The Spanish women terme the Germane● Mallespisces that is spongie fishes for their continuall drinking and in Italy and Provence the inhabitants doe much wonder at the English the French and the Flemmings for their nightly complaints of the bitings of the Gnats and Cimeces a kinde of wormes breeding in their beds and bedsteads whereas they themselves doe little regard them But as the bodies of the Northerne people are endued with strength and courage

to imagine all heat and no temperature sufficient for a man to live in was but an errour of the times bewraying their owne unexperience and the uncertainty of speculative philosophie It is true indeed that neere unto the North pole men thinking to draw in their breaths are in danger to have their throats pluggd up with an Isicle and the Dutchmen wintering in Nova Zembla had their house covered with snow for nine or ten moneths together nor could they get themselves a heat with all the fire they could make But there is not the same reason for the insufferablenesse of heat that there is of cold Heat is the friend of life and nature and cold the great enemie and nipper of vegetation And whereas cold can without doors receiue no temperer heat on the contrarie is capable of very many For so hath the most wise God ordered his Creation that under the Torride Zone there is most abundant plentie of waters Rain-water Snow-water Sea-water Lake-water River-water and Spring-water As for their raines even the heats cause them for in those moneths when the Sunne is verticall and right over their heads and at that time of the day when he scorches from the height of his Meridian at high noone dayes even then most plentifully doth hee dissolve the clouds and the raines at that time quench his flames most temperately At mid-day also have they and that constantly those coole and gentle winds which the Spaniards call the Brizes In those parts have they the most mighty Rivers witnesse the Orelian 70. leagues in bredth and that of Plate 40. leagues over with divers others not much streighter than our narrow Seas There have they the Lake Ticicaca 80. leagues compasse Nicuragua 300. miles long and the Lake of Mexico 1100. miles about To come on this side the Line yet still under the Torride Zone where can you finde such impetuous raines continually falling for some whole moneths together and such vast Lakes and Rivers as in Aethiopia the mouth of the River Zairo is 20. miles wide nay and in these places the rivers content not themselves with their owne channels but in the hottest moneths they then overflow the whole country witnesse the Nile and the Niger Another commoditie of these waters is this that the winds skimming over the face of them fannes the coole vapour all over those quarters Nay as if this were not enough wee see that God hath provided water even in living and growing Cesternes the hollow truncks of most tree-like canes being full of water and those coole a little also such be plentifull in the Moluccas even under the Aequinoctiall Besides all this hath nature provided those parts of many high mountaines which cast long shadowes and mightily keepe off the Sun yea and which you would wonder at even in that continuall neighbourhood of that great Thawer have you hils perpetually covered with frost snow so is it in the I le of Saint Thomas which is just under the Aequinoctiall and so are the silver hills of P●tossi also The generall causer of these snowes and colds is held to be the length of the nights whose long and frequent intermissions be another maine occasion of temper and cooling and these are generally and all the yeare the neerer the Line the longer being there equall with the dayes themselves so that there it snowes and freezes as much in the night as the Sun thawes in the day these snow-waters being naturally more cold than other waters also For these and other reasons have our men of Europe found not people alone but even white people and most delicate and temperate dwelling perchance the best in the world in this Torride Zone yea under the very Aequinoctiall yea much cooler Summers than in Estramedura in Spaine or Apulia in Italy To conclude this point the ancient Romanes who lookt for nothing but rost-meat in that Zone and that raw men could not possibly live there were a great deale worse scorched in their owne Italy nor have those under the Torride Zone so much need of the Romane Grottaes or Freskataes for to coole them Of the Constitutions Complexions and Natures of the Northerne man GEnerally both in the North in the South as also in the Middle you shall observe great difference both of fashion and qualitie occasioned no question through the intermingled resort from both Extremes But in the Extremes you shall see no such apparant diversitie For the assured token of a Scythians countenance is his reddish eye like those of the Owle which also doe dazle at the sight of the light Such eyes saith Plutarch haue the Cimbrians and such at this day the Danes The Germanes and the Brittish have them not so fierie but rather grey intermixed with a bright blacknesse most resembling the colour of water And this bright-shining colour saith Aristotle argueth heat but blacke the colour of the Southerne people betokeneth want thereof The grey eye and such is theirs who inhabite betweene both is sharpest of sight seldome troubled with dimnesse and according to Aristotle denoteth good qualities the Red crueltie and austeritie as Plinie and Plutarch observed of Sylla Caro and Augustus The bloud also of the Scythian is full of small strings such as are discernable in the goare of Bulls and Boares and betokeneth strength and courage The people of the South haue their bloud thinne and fluent like to that of the Hare and Hart and denoteth feare Whereupon it may be conjectured that those Nations which are spread from the fortieth degree to the seventie five Northward are hot within but the people of the South what they borrow from the Sunne that they want in themselves the inward heat being dispersed and drawne into the outward parts by the vehemencie of the outward heat A reason why in frosty weather our minds and joynts are couragious and strong in heat idle and lazie and so our appetites and digestion more vehement in Winter than in Summer especially if the Northerne winds be stirring The Southerne winds effect the contrary in all living creatures saith Aristotle as may daily be observed amongst the English the Germans and the French travelling into Italy and Spaine where if they live not sparingly they fall into surfets witnesse Philip Duke of Austria living in Spaine after his Germane gourmandizing fashion Againe the Spaniards who in their owne Countries live most niggardly in our parts of the world prove better trencher-men than the natives And this experiment falleth not out true in men onely but also in beasts which as herdsmen affirme being driven towards the South fall away and lose flesh but if they feed towards the North they prosper and wax fat Which I the rather beleeve for that Leo Afer writeth that throughout all Afrike you shall almost see no herds of Cattell nor Horse few flocks of Sheepe and scarce any milke at all On the other side the goodly droves of the English the Germans and the Scythians are celebrated

so the weake constitutions of the Southerne Nations are supplied by the extraordinarie gifts of the minde terme them what you please either wit or subtiltie Of crueltie also they have ever beene taxed Reade Leo Afer his Historie of Afrike and the Carthaginian dissentions or if Antiquitie please you not then turne your eyes to the late butcheries of Muleasses and his children and diligently weigh if ever your eares heard of more hellish furies than those which these Princes have put in execution either upon their vassals or against their own linage Which if you undertake then you shall see miserable Muleasses deprived of his kingdome with his eyes burnt out his face disfigured and in lamentable distresse by the cruelty of his brother prostrating his complaints at the feet of Charles the Emperour For to speake uprightly from these Nations more than from any other have tortures of more exquisite device taken their originals as exoculations tearing of memb●●s flayings gashings with swords slow fires and impalements on stakes all which the Italians the French the Spanish the Greekes and the people of Asia have ever abhorred and never admitted but upon occasions of horrible treasons and that unwillingly too as borrowed from their neighbours And that no man should conjecture as doth Polybius that evill education should produce this disposition of crueltie I would advise him to looke into the nature of the Southerne Americans who also bathe their children in the gore of their slaughtered enemies then drinke their bloud and lastly banquet with the quartered carkasses of their enemies But if peradventure any man will object the like crueltie in the Northerne man I would wish him to put this difference that the man of the North is transported into fury by the heat of courage and pursueth his revenge in open field where being provoked and passion asswaged he is easily pacified whereas the Southerne man is not easily provoked nor once in passion is easily to be reconciled and in actions of warre he wholly setteth his hopes on policies and stratagems tormenting with great indignitie and crueltie his slaine or vanquished enemies and that in cold bloud A disposition base and brutish arising partly I denie not from that instinct of fury which evill education and their inveterate desire of revenge doe ingender in nature but more properly increased by the unequall distribution of humours and these humours by the inequalitie of the elements By the influence of celestiall providence these elements are proportioned and by these elements humane bodies are transported and bloud infused in the bodie life in the bloud the soule in life and understanding in the soule which although it be free from passion yet by proximitie it cannot but participate of neighbour-imperfection the reason wherefore the people dwelling on either side our Middest are more prone to vice and foule behaviour For as melancholie can no more be wanting to bloud thanlees to wine no otherwise can these passions which arise from melancholie be extracted from the body Now the Southerne people having the greatest portion of their other humours drawne out by the heat of the Sun the melancholike wherewith they most abound remaine and as dregges settle at the base of all their actions being the more exasperated by their froward and perverse dispositions That men of these constitutions are utterly implacable Ajax and M. Coriolanus may serve for presidents the former of whom for that he could not have his will on his enemie in a madding mood fell upon droves of cattell the other would in no wise be reconciled to his Countrey before he saw the Cities thereof on a flaming fire in danger of irrecoverable destruction But that the Northerne people have also their faults and are subject to choler I must not gaine-say but advise you to consider that when this passion happeneth to over-rule reason it burneth the bloud and incenseth the minde to quarrelling and revenge but in a farre fairer measure as I said before than melancholie doth in the nature of a Southerne man According to Cicero Passion may over-beare a wise man madnesse cannot Now that the people of the South have beene given to the studies of contemplation a profession befitting their melancholike humours let their excellent Writers and Inventors of many noble Sciences as the Historie of Nature the Mathematikes Religion and the operation of the Planets plead their properties The Northerne people being lesse given to contemplation by reason of their plentie of bloud and humours distempering their minds and hindering it's faculties have without teaching found out such Arts as fall within the compasse of understanding and apprehension as Mechanicall workmanships Ordnance casting of metals Printing and Minerals Being also the Darlings of Mars they have alwayes and that with incredible eagernesse of courage embraced the Art Militarie loved Armes levelled Mountaines and turned Streames giving themselves wholly to Hunting to Tillage to Grasing and to those Arts which are managed by labour insomuch that a man may well affirme That their wits consist in their hands The reason why the Astrologers if you please to beleeve them affirme That those who have Mars Lord in their Nativities become either Souldiers or Trades-men Of the people of the Middle Region OF this division are those who at this day understanding the reciprocall bounds of Government and Subjection and inured to civill and sociable conditions are sufficiently enabled to frustrate the policies of the South and to oppose against the furies of the North. Out of this mould would Vitruvius have a Commander to be chosen and how judiciously let others say wee will only maintaine by historicall experience that the Goths Hunnes Heruli and Vandals wasted Asia Afrike and Europe and yet for want of good counsell could never maintaine their Conquests whereas farre weaker forces assisted by wisdome and politike government have not only brought barbarous Nations to civilitie but likewise perpetuated most flourishing Empires In approbation whereof the Poets fained Pallas to be armed and Achilles to be by her protected It is recorded also of Cato Censorius that he was a valiant Captaine a sage Senator an upright Iudge and a great Scholer of Caesar that he was a Politician an Historian an Orator and a Warrior of Agamemnon that he was a good Governour and a tall Souldier And therefore no wonder if the Scythians hating Learning and the Southerne Nations abhorring Armes could never make good their conquered acquisitions The Romans embraced both to their great good fortunes and according to Platoes rule intermingled Musicke as the saying is with Martiall exercises From the Grecians they deemed it no discredit to borrow Lawes and Letters from the Carthaginians and Sicilians the Art Marine the Militarie they had in perfection by continuance and assiduitie Before these times Scythian-like they strucke downe-right blowes afterwards they learned of the Spaniards saith Polybius to thrust with the point Thus much by way of Reading and Observation for Inclination and Industrie for mine

obedience so that at this day the Empire is inclosed in Germanie Whereupon sithence the glory thereof at this day consisteth only in Germanie It is good reason to say somewhat of this most ample and flourishing Province It lyeth betweene Odera and Mosa betweene Vistula and Aa and betweene the German Sea the Baltick Ocean and the Alpes The forme thereof is foure-square equall in length and breadth stretching six hundred and fifty miles every way● That it aboundeth with Corne Cattell and Fish let experience shew For Charles the fifth had under his Ensignes at Vienna ninety thousand foot-men and thirty five thousand horse Maximilian the second at Iavorin had almost one hundred thousand footmen and thirty foure thousand horse and yet no man complained of dearenesse or scarcitie In the warre betweene Charles the fifth and the Protestants for certain moneths one hundred and fifty thousand men sustained themselves abundantly in the field And surely of all Europe it is the greatest Countrey and beautified with the best and richest store of Cities Townes Castles and Religious places And in that decorum and order for in a manner see one and see all as if there had beene an universall consent to have squared them like Courts to one anothers proportion whereto may be added a secret of moralitie That the inhabitants for honesty of conversation probity of manners assurance of loyaltie and confidence of disposition setting apart their imperfect customes of drinking exceed our beleefe For notwithstanding these their intemperate meetings and phantasticalnesse in apparell yet are they unoffensive conversible and maintainers of their Honours and Families wherein they steppe so farre as if true Gentrie were incorporate with them and there had his principall mansion And wanted they not an united and heeditary succession of government having sometime an Emperour by partiality of election and sometime by the absolute command of the Pope I should stand as forward as the best to say with Charles the Emperour That they were indeed a valiant a happie and an honourable Nation But in respect of these apparant and materiall defects in some abatement of their ostentation concerning their owne glory and the honour of Majestie in my judgement they should not doe amisse to reforme the custome of intituling the younger sonnes of Dukes Earles and Barons by the honourable Titles of their Ancestours especially sithence the Italians in facetiousnesse doe jest That these Earles of Germanie the Dukes of Russia the Dons of Spaine the Monsiers of France the Bishops of Italy the Knights of Naples the Lairds of Scotland the Hidalgos of Portugal the Nobles of Hungarie and the younger Brethren in England make a very poore company Otherwise if noveltie transport you to view their Palaces of Honour you shall eft-soones bee brought into their well fortified Cities wherein you shall finde Armorie Munition c. with a presence of the very Burgers excellently well trained in Militarie discipline you shall see brave musters of Horse with their exercises of Hunting Hawking and Riding yea how every man liveth of his owne the Citizen in quiet and the women blessed with plentifull issue The Nature of this Climate is temperate enough somewhat of the coldest yet tolerable and healthie No place thereof unlesse by nature it be utterly barren lieth unmanured insomuch that few remainders of that huge wood of Hercynia are to bee seene at this day unlesse in place where humane necessitie requireth their growing or Nature hath made the Earth fit for no other imployment as are the Blacke-Wood the Ottonique Wood and the Woods of Bohemia And yet doe they neither carry that horrid face of thicknesse as in old times neither are they so untravelled or unhabitable but exceeding full of Habitations Hamlets Villages and Monasteries It is rich in Mines of Gold Silver Corne Vines Bathes and all sorts of Metall and therein surpasseth the residue of the Provinces of Europe Nature hath also bestowed upon the Vp-land Countries many Springs and pits of Salt Water of which hard Salt is boiled Neither is it lesse stored with Merchandize for the Inhabitants more than any other Nation doe excell in curious workmanship and mechanicall invention and it is so watered with Navigable Rivers that all sorts of merchandize wares are with ease conveied from one place to another The greatest of them is Danow next the Rhene which runneth cleane through the Country from the South to the North as the Danow from East to West Albis riseth in Bohemia passeth by Misnia Saxonie Marchia and the ancient Marquisat Odera springeth in Moravia watereth S●●●sia the two Marquisats and Pomeran Then followeth Wesar Neccar Mosa Moselia Isara C●nus Varia the Mase This divideth Germanie into two parts the higher and the lower The high stretcheth from the Mase to the Alpes the low from the Mase to the Ocean It is divided into many Provinces the chiefe whereof I meane the true members of the Empire are Alsatia Swevia Bavaria Austria Bohemia Moravia Silesia Lusatia the two Marquisates Saxonie Masaia Thuringia Franconia Hassia Westphalia Cleveland Magunce Pomeran In these Provinces besides Belgia and Helvetia are esteemed to bee ten Millions of men and eightie great Cities Villages innumerable and those plentifully stored with all sorts of Mechanicall Occupations Those which are seated neere Rivers for the most part are builded of Stone the Vp-land part of Stone and part of Timber The Houses thereof are very faire and high the Streets strait large and paved with stone yea more neat and handsome than those of Italy Strabo writeth that the Romans excelled the Grecians in cleanlinesse of their cities by reason of their Channels to conu●y away the soile but at this day the Dutch-men doe farre exceed the Romans herein These Cities are of three sorts viz. free Cities yet those stiled imperiall Hanse-townes and Cities by inheritance immediately holden of Princes and Prelates The free Cities are those which are by time and prescription immediately subject to the Emperour and have no other protector but him onely In times past they have beene accounted 96. now 60. Of Hanse cities there were 72. mutually bound by ancient leagues to enjoy common privileges and freedomes both at home and in forren Countries In ancient times they were of high estimation in England and other Provinces in regard of their numbers of shipping Sea-trade whereby they stored all Countries with their Easterne commodities and served Princes turnes in time of warre with use of shipping But at this day wee shall finde neither themselves nor their meanes so great that the English should either feare them or favour them especially in cases of prejudice I write this because of their continuall grudges and complaints against our Nation For if the State upon occasion as of late yeares after the example of other Princes should forbid them all offensive trade into Spaine which is their chiefest support they would in short time be quit of that indifferent

Persians but the Georgians and Arabians also betooke themselves to the exercise of Armes and therein attained to such ability that to this day they are ever and anon in tumult and beginne to recover some of their losses This was the true reason as aforesaid that induced Amurath and his Counsellours distrusting the obedience of that people against the Turkish custome there to erect many Citadels as at Chars Nassivan Lori Teflis and at Tauris whereinto they thrust great Garrisons as namely into that of Tauris eight thousand The predecessors of Amurath who reposed the maine reputation of their forces to consist in being Masters of the field made no account of these holds maintaining this rule That who is strong in the field needeth not the assistance of Holds and who will maintaine many fortresses garrisoned can never be very strong in Campania From these and such like oversights have arisen all the corruptions whereof I have spoken in this relation of the Turkish greatnesse Whereby those Armies which were wont to amount to two hundred thousand fighting men and upward and their Navies accustomed to bee of two hundred saile and more are now brought to a farre lesse reckoning They are now come to fifty thousand the proportion that Hebraim brought with him not many yeares since into Hungarie And to some thirty six Gallies or thereabouts with which Cicola Admirall of that Empire came of late into the Levant Seas By which diminutions it hath fallen out that a poore Prince of Transilvania durst meet Sinan Bassa and fight with him and that the Vayvod of Valachia durst also make him the like opposition So likewise I say that this one Kingdome and one Common-wealth hath done more in abatement of the ambition and checking the fortune of the Ottoman than all Christian States have done all together For where all the rest of the Princes bordering anciently upon them were in short time devoured spoiled of their Estates the Hungarian and the Venetian alone have for the space of one hundred and fifty yeares and more maintained themselves And though both the one and the other have quitted unto the Ottoman some parts of their Territories yet have they well warded and retained the residue So that to speake truth Christianity hath at this day no other frontier upon the Turke but what is theirs which how much it importeth no man can rightly judge who hath not by experience made triall how dreadfull the Ottoman power is to all those that dwell neere it And howbeit in these later yeares the Hungarian hath had in his favour the continuall supplies of Germanie and the Venetian hath beene assisted by the association of the Pope and the Spaniard yet it is to be understood that unlesse both those and these had had of their owne a sufficient body of warre the cold assistance of others would finally have helped their sudden necessities The State of Bethlen Gabor in Transilvania c. THis Country hath Nature it selfe at one time both fortified and honoured for the woods and Hercynian mountaines doe round about inviron it gathering it into the shape of a Crowne The length is two hundred twenty five miles English and the breadth two hundred The Ancients made it a part of Dacia but the latter Writers from the lying of it beyond the woods have called it Transylvania 〈…〉 name Sienburgen or the new Latine name Sept●m ●a●●ra it hath not from the seven Castles set to defend the Frontiers as some mistake it but from those seven Quarters or Camps into which the old Hunnes at their invasion divided their Army Thorow these woods and mountaines there be but eleven Avenues or entrances out of other Countries into Transylvania T is inhabited by three severall Nations the Siculi which be the ancientest the Hungarians and the Saxons The Religions publikely professed are three also The Arrian the Romish and the Reformed and this last divided into the Lutheran and Calvinisticall The Popish hath continued there of old The Arrian heresie was first brought in by Blandrata Anno 1556. It chiefly infected the Towne of Clausenburg where even at this day the Arrians have a populous College and a free Church though by the religious diligence of Bethlen Gabor scarce one fourth part of the City be now infected with this poyson Both Papists and Arrians professe in great freedome for that the Prince at his Inauguration is alwayes sworne to defend them As members politike of the Kingdome The Saxons use their own mother tongue the rest speak the Hungarian The number of Seven is much observed in Transilvania for by this number is the whole Countrey variously divided For first both the Siculi and Saxons and each severally have divided their portions into seven Countries or Seats the Shire-towne as it were being head of the Villages about it to which Townes those of that division repaire for matter of Justice Secondly there bee seven capitall Townes unto which the Villagers round about are to bring their Taxes and Tributes where being received by Auditors and under-Treasurers it is afterward returned into the grand Exchequer Thirdly over and above all these is the whole land of Transilvania divided into seven larger Counties First Coloszien whose Metropolis or chiefe City is Clausenburg Secondly Szolnok whose chiefe Towne is Dees Thirdly Dobocen-Landt The fourth Countie hath Alba Iulia or Weisenburg for its chiefe and that famous for the Residence and Palace of the Prince The fifth is named Thorden from Thorda its Metropolis The sixth is Keokeollea which takes name from the River Keokeolleo and gives name to its chiefe Towne Keokeolleovar The seventh and last Towne and County is Hungad which gave birth and name to the famous Family of Hungades Seven principall Cities it also hath First Hermanstadt the ancient Metropolis of Transylvania Secondly Cronstat Thirdly Szas Fourthly Clausenburg Fifthly Bestereze Sixthly Sespurg And seventhly Medroish in the middle of all the Countrey The whole Countrey is very fruitfull in one commoditie or other Corne Beeves Muttons and Fish Gods plentie all cheape beyond imagination a fat one being not worth above ten or twelve shillings English So much Wine they have in some places that at Vintage time it may be bought for an English farthing or halfe-peny a pinte Very rich it is also underground as in Salt-pits Stone-quarries whereof some be pretious and mines both of Gold and Silver Iron Quick-silver and other metals So that nothing is wanting for the life of man either for nutriment or ornament and that which is part of a wonder also though there be no where more store of money yet be there no where meaner prizes for their commodities For proofe of this at the election of Bethlen Gabor there were an hundred measures of Wheat sold in Clausenburg Market for one Rix Dollar and few Gentlemen there be who yearely reape not ten twenty or thirty stacks of Wheat as big as houses saith mine Author Their droves and flocks be answerable

and there tending Brasilia never give over untill I had shewed you the streight of Magellan with the description and relation of the people and Pentagones inhabiting all those tracts I could shew you nothing but heathenisme barbarisme and men of strange and uncouth behaviours No better can be related of Quivira Florida Norumbega Terra Labratoris Estotilant c. Provinces in themselves good fertill and all situated towards the North. Virginia THe Natives call it Aphalchen It lyes betweene Florida and Norumbega the West part is yet undiscovered but the East is bounded with the Mar del Noort Discovered it was Anno 1584. at the directions of Sir Walter Raleigh and named Virginia by our Virgin Queene Elizabeth The soile is said to be marvellous good for Corne and Cattell wonderfull hopefull for Mines of Copper and Iron plentifull in materials for shipping as Timber Pitch and Tarre here be Cedars and Vines also Oyle sweet Gummes and Simples for Dyars with many other most usefull Commodities The more to blame they that bring us nothing from thence but Tobacco which now begins to be so base and low prized that it is scarcely worth the costs and labour The Northerne parts of Virginia be called New England better discovered and inhabited Both Plantations have severall Townes and Forts of the English upon them Nova Francia THis lyes parted from Virginia by Norumbega and had the name from the French Discoverer Iaques Cartier some hundred yeares since Though the soyle be none of the fruitfullest and the people none of the civillest yet have the French-men here gone forward with their plantation especially about Canada the chiefe Towne of it a place much spoken of within these two yeares for those two rich prizes of Furres and Bevers with which it seemes the Countrey aboundeth though of a courser wooll than the Russian lately fetcht from thence by Captaine Kirke our Countriman THE SEVENTH BOOKE America Magellanica Or Peruana MAgellanica is the sixth part of the World which as it is least knowne so without doubt it containeth many large Provinces and those five in number viz Castella del Oro Popaiana Brasilia Chile and Peru Whereof Peru is so famous that sometime under that name all that huge tract is contained and named Peruana The Islands thereof are Iava major and Iava minor Timore the Moluccae Los Romoros and the Islands of Salomon It is separated from New Spaine by a narrow peece of ground not above seventeene miles in breadth called the Streight of Darien It containeth threescore and foure degrees and extendeth on the South-side the Line to fiftie two and on the North-side to twelve That which by the Spaniards at this day is bounded betweene Villa de la Plata and the Province Quito in length from North to South seven hundred miles and in breadth from East to West about one hundred is properly Peru A fruitfull sound populous and well inhabited Countrey wherein as well for those beatitudes as for the riches thereof being infinite the Vice-Roy of that Division keepeth his residence It divideth it selfe into three parts The Plaines the Sierras mountaines and the Andes The Plaines lye upon the Sea-coast and are out-stretched in length by the space of one thousand and five hundred miles in breadth they are not above threescore and where they are narrowest thirtie These Plaines are gravelly full of desarts and for the most part barren especially where freshets and lakes are wanting being never releeved with raine nor showers Those grounds that lye nigh the bankes of the Rivers are very fruitfull by reason of the discent of water all the Winter distilling from the mountaines and rockes which are not past seven or ten miles asunder the residue further off the husbandmen doe enforce with great industry by letting in sluces and digging of channels to their plentifull harvest of Cotton-wooll and Corne. The Inhabitants of this tract are a base people cowardly and poore sleeping and living under trees and reeds and feeding upon fish and raw flesh The Mountaine Countrey is extended from North to South about one thousand miles being distant not above twentie leagues from the Sea and in some places lesse They are very cold and subject to continuall snow wanting wood and incumbred with Lions Wolves blacke Beares Goats and a certaine beast like a Camell of whose wooll they worke them garments and other utensils These Mountaines are full of inhabitants fertill and batefull especially where the aire is indurable and the Inhabitants more wittie couragious and civiller than the residue The Andes are likewise mountaines but lying in one continuall ridge without valleys extending from North to South Betweene which and the former lyeth Callao a Province full of Mountaines also subject to cold yet very populous Thus much of the nature in generall of these halfe known places of the soile and people of their forces little can be spoken by reason of their subjection to the Spaniard and inforced ignorance in matters of armes and policy It is rich in gold and silver more than any Country in all the World as may appeare by the yearely quantities thereof brought from thence Yet say the Inhabitants that in respect of the remainder it is no more than if a man should take a few graines out of a sacke full of Corne. Which surely may carry some presumption of truth considering what Authors write of Atabalipa his ransome offered and performed in those daies when Avarice was not in halfe so much request as now it is It wanteth no good thing that God hath created for the use of man either for pleasure or necessity Onely in this it is dispraisable that for the greater part it bringeth forth Inhabitants of savage irreligious and inhumane behaviour delighting in devouring of mans flesh with other uncleane and undressed viands Summer and Winter beginneth with them as with us upon the Hils but in the plaine land it is cleane contrary For when it is Summer in the Hils it is Winter in the plaines So that there the Summer beginneth in October and continueth till April Which for the exceeding strangnesse I have the rather noted to see a man upon one day in the morning in one and the same Country travelling from the Hils to be well wet with raine and before night to arrive in a pleasant sun-shining-Country where from the beginning of October that is all their Summer long it seldome or never raineth so much as to lay the dust in the high waies But then it is sultry hot in the Plaines and when any small due falleth then is it faire weather on the Hils Yea when the South-west winds blow in the plaine Country which in other places are commonly moist and causes of raine there they are of cleane contrary effects Castella Aurea OR golden Castile is that part of the firme ●an● so called by the Spaniards which stretcheth from the City Theonima and Panama even to the bay of Vrava and Saint Michael and